Distributive Justice and the Sustainable Development Goals : Delivering Agenda 2030 in India

The sustainable development goals (SDGs) present a real opportunity to direct India towards a path of equality and equity. This article posits that India's plans to achieve the millennium development goals by the end of their term in 2015 faltered because reforms designed to alleviate poverty and achieve equitable growth did not adequately address weaknesses in institutions of accountability, which undermined the reform agenda. These institutions, which include Parliament and the judiciary, exist in part to ensure that actions taken by public officials are subject to oversight so that government initiatives meet their stated objectives. As India shifts its attention to Agenda 2030, its renewed commitment to institutional reforms represents an occasion for the state to address the inequalities in income and the resulting human development concerns. For the government to achieve the SDGs, this article suggests that India must integrate what we refer to as a baseline conception of distributive justice within its plans, which can account for structural barriers to its development arising from ineffective institutions of accountability and provide the poor with a route towards individual empowerment